All the preaching of the missionary colonist was once more of no avail with the natives in the presence of the frequent visits of his man-stealing countrymen; and at last Las Casas was persuaded against his own inclination to return to _San Domingo_ to complain to the “Audience” of the mischief done by the Spaniards from _Cubagua_. His deputy, in disobedience to the written instructions he had left, sent away the only two boats which the colony possessed to traffic for pearls and gold. In their absence the monastery was attacked by the Indians, and, being in a defenceless condition, was set on fire. The inmates, however, with the exception of two or three, succeeded in making their escape in a canoe, in which they were fortunate enough to reach a Spanish vessel. Thus ended the attempt at forming a moral Spanish colony on the mainland, which had cost Las Casas so many years of labour in the face of ridicule and opposition. The unfortunate philanthropist now abandoned his scheme as hopeless and took refuge in a Dominican monastery. _Cumana_ was now no longer the scene of missionary efforts. The last outrage of the Indians was of course avenged, and the slave marts of _Cubagua_ and _San Domingo_ were once more filled. But as the Indians found themselves safer in the interior, the whole coast was left desolate, and the provinces which Columbus had found so beautiful and populous, now merely afforded a forest for slave-hunting expeditions, which set out from _Aricapana_. The last-named place became the headquarters of a piratical Spanish band numbering several hundreds, who lived entirely by predatory expeditions, the extent of which may be judged from the fact that the Italian traveller Benzoni witnessed the return of one with four thousand slaves--the survivors of a far greater number--who were sent to _Cubagua_ for disposal. NOTE.--Chapters I. to IV. of vol. I. are, for the most part, founded upon the following works, namely:-- _Navarrete_ (_Don_ M. F. de); _Viages y Descubrimientos de los Españoles desde fines del Siglo XV._, 5 vol. sm. 4to. Amerigo (Vespucci), _Viaggi_. Vesputius (A.) Navigationum Epit.--_Grynæi_; _Canovai_; _Ramusio_, i.; _Brosses_. Martyris (Petri ab Angleria);--_De Insulis nuper repertis_--_Grynæi Orbis_. Eight Decades of the Ocean.--Hakluyt, V. The Spanish Conquest in America; by Arthur Helps. John W. Parker & Son, 1855. Las Casas, Hist. Ind. Hist. del Almirante. Oviedo, Cronica de las Indias. Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, lib. ii. Benzoni, History of the New World, translated: Hakluyt Society. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; together with the Voyages of his Companions. By Washington Irving. London: John Murray, 1849. CHAPTER V. _BRAZIL; THE PLATE; AND PARAGUAY._ 1499-1557. [Sidenote: 1500.]